A face in the crowd
by Pan-nikki-Chan
Summary: I will be with you forever. don't be afrade. vegeta said softly to pan.


I DO NOT OWN DBZ OR THE CHARTERS I ONLY OWN BRIAN ALL RIGHTS GO TO THERE CORERECT OWNERS.!!!!!!!!! "..."-PEOPLE TALKING '...'-FLASHBACK (...)- ME BUTTING IN ...-dream

Pan sat up and looked toward the surf. The midday sunlight splashed across the waves and splintered into hundreds of dancing beams. Pan shielded her eyes and searched the shoreline for her family. Finally she spotter her parents and younger sister building a sand castle. Pan smiled. Her five- year-old sister, Megan, was busy "decorating" the castle with bits of roughly, dark green seaweed.  
  
Closing her book, pan glanced around. It was only the first weekend of June. There was still a whole week of school left, but the beach was already crowed with people playing volleyball, relaxing, wading, and jogging along the shoreline. Swimmers were bobbing up and down in the pluming waves, laughing and shouting. Pan leaned back again, took a deep breath of salty air, and closed her eyes as she listened to the pleasant sound. Suddenly the shouts of joy and playfulness turned to awful shrieks mingled with dozens of urgent voices. Startled, pan looked up. She saw the lifeguard race toward the ocean and dive into the churning waves. All at once it seemed that everyone was up and moving. Pan jumped to her feet and looked to where her parents and sister had been playing, the sandcastle was there, being trampled by the gathering crowd, but she couldn't see her family anywhere. Frantically she scanned the shoreline. "Mom! Dad!" she cried out, joining the rush of people. As she was pushed and jostled by the sea of onlookers. Pan could feel her heart pounding louder that the crashing waves. Where were her parents? Where was Megan?  
  
"Look!" a nearby woman gasped, "the lifeguard has someone. Can you see who it is?" "Oh, no!" pan cried as she tried to force her way through the throng. Please, please don't let it be any of my family. She pleaded silently.  
  
Suddenly Pan felt someone touches her shoulder, and she heard a familiar voice say her name with a flood of relief she turned to see her mother. "We were so worried about you." Pan's mom said, slipping her arm around her waist. "I was worried about you too!" Pan returned sincerely. She looked around. "Where're dad & Megan?" "There over there", her mom said, pointing toward the edge of the crowd. "Come on. I don't want to lose you again." As they joined the others, the crowd appeared to craw back, and pan saw the lifeguard struggling to pull the heavyset man onto the beach. The man was pale and limp. Another lifeguard sprinter to help. "Please, give them some room!" he commanded. Without a word, pan leaned against her mother. The noisy crowd became silent as the young man & woman determinedly to start the ashen- faced victim breathing again. But he remained still, his eyes staring vacantly toward the sky.  
  
"What's going to happen to him dad?" pan asked with concern, hearing a siren wailing in the distance. Her dad shook his head and lifted Megan into his arms. "I don't think he's going to make it," he said somberly. "We should go," he added. Pan shivered, feeling suddenly chilled. And thought there wasn't a cloud in the sky the bright sunny day now seemed pale and drab. Seagulls cried overhead, their calls resembling mournful cries. She turned to looks at the empty ocean, and then quickly caught her breath; a tall, dark haired man was standing ankle deep in the water, staring coldly at the man who had drowned. He was wearing an old war uniform with black & silver armor. The hem of his cloak swirled in the foaming surf.  
  
The man seemed oddly familiar to pan. It was more than just the outfit that she somehow recognized, it was something about the lake of emotion... the indifference in his lack of expression-pan has seed that man somewhere before. "Mom," pan said touching her mother's arm. "Look at that man where do we know him from? Don't you think it's weird for someone to wear a uniform like that to the beach?" her mom looked in the direction that pan was staring." What man, honey? I don't see who you mean." Pan turned to look at her mother. "The one with the long cloak," she said pointing "He's standing in..." pan stopped and let her hand drop. "That's funny. He's gone." Her mother shrugged. "He probably just got lost in the crowd like you did."  
  
Just then the emergency vehicle ground to a halt on the sand, its siren still blaring. "Come on," pan's mom urged soberly. "Lets go and give the paramedics some room to do their job." At dinner that night, pan didn't feel like eating, and her parents understand. Later she stretched out on her bed in her darkened room, staring out at the starry night sky. She absentmindedly ran one finger across the trunk of her small, well-worn stuffed elephant, peanuts. "It's just so sad," pan whispered sleepily to the little animal. "Wonder if that poor man had a family." She felt the slight sting of tears as she wearily closed her eyes and fell asleep. Drifting in a dream world she could still see the man's sightless stare.  
  
At first the image was very distinct, and then slowly his features began to change into another pale image. All at once pan found herself gazing at the strange man in silver and black whom she had seen at the beach that day. The image in her mind burned itself into the space in front of her until it seemed as if the man were staring in through the slightly opened window for the second floor bedroom, his haggard eyes hidden in the darkness of the night. Pan tried to scream. But no sound would leave her throat. She tried to move, but nothing happened. It was as if every muscle in her body had turned to stone. Then, as impossible as it seemed, the gaunt men floated through the darkness, closer and closer still toward the window. His long gleaming cloak fluttered in the breeze. NO! Pan shrieked in her mind, helpless at the man slowly raised his head in a gesture of command, and the window still open even farther. NO, GET AWAY, GET AWAY!  
  
Pan sat up in bed, her hands aching; she had gripped the sheets so tightly that the blood drained from her fingertips. She gaped into the shadows of her room. Peanuts had tumbled to the floor beside the bed. The window was as it was no phantom man starring in at her. "I must have been dreaming," pan sighed aloud. She gathered up peanuts and slipped under the covers. She still had the creepy feeling that she had seen the spectral man before. Perhaps in another nightmare, she thought. With one more last long look at the window, Pan soon fell asleep.  
...... (Next Day)......  
  
"I can't wait!" Bra exclaimed, as she and pan walked to school the next morning. Pan and Bra had become best friends since Bra and her family had moved in five months earlier. Bra was her dad's apple of his eye. Pan was over there so much that Bra's dad called Pan his daughter also. About 2 weeks after they moved in her dad was killed in war. Bra was sad, but after about a week after his death, she got over it.  
  
"We're going to have such a great summer!" "Maureen said that we're going to be able to go horseback riding at the Givens Ranch. She knows, because her mom took her there to actually see the camp to decide if she liked it, and there's a new camp swimming pool... Olympic size! Wait until Brian hears about that. He'll just die. But I guess Maureen has probably already told him all about it. What do you think?" Bra paused out of breath.  
  
"Well?" she said expectantly. Pan said nothing. Bra stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Earth to Pan, are you even listening to me?"  
  
"Oh I'm sorry." Pan smiled sheepishly. "I was thinking about something else. "You were saying."  
  
Bra shook her head and started walking again. "It wasn't important. We'll be leaving for camp this weekend. We'll have plenty of time to talk about it on the train, and Maureen can tell you about it herself. C'mon let's cut through the park."  
  
Pan stopped abruptly. She gazed out at the soccer field, and memories... very unpleasant memories... began to crowd their way into her mind. Bra took pan's arm and gave her a concerned look. "Are you still thinking about that guy on the beach? I guess it must have been pretty awful to see someone die."  
  
"I saw it happen once before." Pan said softly, "A year ago."  
  
In her mind she could recall the last time she had see a fatal accident, and it was right here on the very corner. It had been a terrible experience and pan had always tried not to think about it. But now it was all so clear in her mind – as if it was happening all over again right in front of her eyes.  
  
'The park had been filled with people. She and her friends were practicing some soccer moves. Old Mr.Brifes had watched them for a while, and then walked away. He must not have been paying attention to the traffic light when he stepped out onto the street. Pan hadn't actually seen the accident, but she'd heard the squeal of the tires and the loud, sickening thud.'  
  
And now there was something else tugging at her thoughts. Pan glanced at the low rise behind the picnic area of the park and the terrible memory came flooding back. That was where she had first seen him, the man in the silver war armor. He had been there on that awful day a year ago, staring balefully at the very spot were Mr.Brifes had been killed. Pan could almost see him there now. With his long black cloak billowing around him in the breeze, much the same way that it had floated around his ankles at the beach.  
  
"I have seen you before," pan whispered. A shudder shook her entire body, she could feel the fingers of fear gripping at her spine," "who are you? What do you want?"  
  
"Pan?" Bra's worried voice seemed to be coming from a distance. "Pan, are you ok?"  
  
"It's him," Pan whispered in a trembling voice.  
  
"Who?" Bra looked where pan was staring.  
  
"The man in silver, he's right there!" pan almost screamed. But the bewildered expression on Bra's face told pan her friend had no idea what she was talking about.  
  
...... (Next week)......  
  
They where headed for two (2) whole weeks of swimming, horseback riding, and fun. She smiled as Maureen took one shot after another.  
  
"We'd better get aboard," bra's mom said, herding the girls toward the door of the train car. Once inside, pan grabbed a seat by the window, she took one final, careful look at the people on the platform and let out a sigh of relief. The man that had haunted all of her terrible memories wasn't among them. The train jerked slightly, and then slowly began to pull out of the station.  
  
Soon the city was left behind and the train was speeding through a beautiful hill country. The other girls had rushed to the dining car for sodas, but pan had decided to take some time in the main car to watch the incredible scenery. From the window she could see a pine forests sweeping up toward the mountaintop on one side. On the other side of the tracks, a sparkling blue river snaked through a deep ravine. It was so lovely, but she couldn't quite shake the feeling of uneasiness that still clung to her.  
  
"What's up Pan?" Bra said, flopping into the seat next to her. She leaned in with a mischievous grin. "Did your mystery man get on with us?"  
  
Pan shook her head and smiled weakly. "I know it sounds silly, but I really did see him all those times I said I did." She shrugged "But he's not here now."  
  
"Then stop worrying." Bra said smiling she tossed the photographs that had been taken earlier into pans lap. "Stop looking for some one who doesn't exist and check these out."  
  
Pan picked up the first one of the whole group making funny faces at the camera, and she laughed out loud. She held up the next picture and the smile faded from her lips. There, seated on the train and gazing out the window directly at the girls, was the man in silver, Pan could barely breathe.  
  
"He's here!" she gasped in horror. "Look, he's been here all along and I didn't...! All at once pan heard the squeal of metal on metal and she was thrown forward the train lurched heavily to one side as it struck the slide of boulders that had fallen across the tracks only minutes before.  
  
"What's happening?!" "AHHHHHHHHHH!" Bra shrieked as she clung to her seat. Then in one fluidic move, tossed like a rag doll into the aisle and knocked out cold. Pan managed to push her self back into her own seat. Terror gripped every nerve of her body as she saw the man in silver standing at the car entrance. "NO!" pan cried out. "Stay away from me!" but the man slowly moved toward her, oblivious to the screams of the other passengers. "It's your turn now," the man whispered, reaching out his pale hand. Filled with dread, pan realized that the man's eyes were no longer hidden. For the first time she was able to stare directly into their sorrowful depths..., for the man that had haunted her dreams was none other that bra's father, Vegeta, and her fears drained away. Reaching out her own hand, pan lightly touched Vegetas' long but strangely warm fingers and felt a sense of calm. "It's time to go," Vegeta said softly. Pan rose, pausing only from a moment to glance at her own lifeless body sprawled in the aisle, a horrendous wound across her forehead, "Don't worry," Vegeta added. "There will be many others going with us."  
  
And with a sickening groan the train tumbled from the tracks like a huge beast, and then rolled down the ravine down the steep embankment and into the ravine below.  
...... (The end)...


End file.
